Talk to a climate denier — someone who believes global warming has purely natural causes — and chances are you’ll soon hear the phrase “Milankovitch cycles.” These, not humans, are responsible for climate change, they’ll say. Actually, this is what your regular climate denier will claim. In the extreme version, some of these benighted souls deny […]
climate change
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California Approves New Blueprint for Offshore Wind. The Massive Projects Will Cost Billions
The California Energy Commission today unanimously approved a sweeping plan to develop a massive floating offshore wind industry in ocean waters — a first-of-its-kind undertaking that will require billions in public and private investments and could transform parts of the coast. The new state plan sets the path for harnessing wind power from hundreds of […]
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Alternative Energy Brainstorming with Billionaires
Welcome all! Thank you for joining me in my secret underwater bubble retreat overlooking the Mariana Trench. Please make yourselves comfortable — I only ask that you not tap on the glass. I think I speak for us all when I say the time for climate denial is over. It was a good run. Rupert, you […]
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Can this Plan Fix California’s Insurance Crisis? What You Need to Know
A week after negotiations to rescue California’s floundering home insurance market stalled out in the Legislature, the state’s top insurance regulator put out his own rescue plan that effectively amounts to a trade for the state’s major insurers. Under proposed regulations Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced Thursday, major insurers will be required to cover a […]
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Don’t Call it ‘Toilet to Tap’ — California Plans to Turn Sewage into Drinking Water
Californians could drink highly purified sewage water that is piped directly into drinking water supplies for the first time under proposed rules unveiled by state water officials. The drought-prone state has turned to recycled water for more than 60 years to bolster its scarce supplies, but the current regulations require it to first make a […]
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California Ranchers Intentionally Violated an Emergency Water Order. Now Lawmakers Want to Triple the Fines
When ranchers violated an emergency order to stop pumping water from the drought-plagued Shasta River last year, state officials fined them $4,000, or roughly $50 each. Now California legislators are weighing a bill that would triple fines for such infractions — and could allow the penalty to climb higher than a million dollars. Authored by […]
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Mangoes and Agave in the Central Valley? California Farmers Try New Crops to Cope with Climate Change
In a world of worsening heatwaves, flooding, drought, glacial melting, megafires and other calamities of a changing climate, Gary Gragg is an optimist. As California warms, Gragg — a nurseryman, micro-scale farmer and tropical fruit enthusiast — looks forward to the day that he can grow and sell mangoes in Northern California. “I’ve been banking […]
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Earth Day: How Will California Protect Humboldt Bay from Worst Sea Level Rise on the West Coast?
I may not be able to get home in 20 years – not because I’ve left the area, but because the roads to my house may be underwater. I live just a mile from the edge of Humboldt Bay in Northern California, the location of the most rapid sea level rise along the West Coast. […]
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Protestors Call on Local Banks to Cut Fossil Fuel Industry Support
Last week’s national day of protest by Third Act members urging banks, including local branches of Wells Fargo and CHASE Bank, to stop lending to and underwriting the fossil fuel industry, included a demonstration attended by around 60 persons in Arcata. Many attendees brought their bank cards to cut up in protest March 21, as […]
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Newsom’s Climate Budget Would Slash Funds that Protect Coast
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget would cut funding for coastal resilience projects almost in half, eliminating more than half a billion dollars of state funds this year that would help protect the coast against rising seas and climate change. The cuts are part of Newsom’s proposed $6 billion in reductions to California’s climate change programs […]
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Going, Going, Gone: Feds Hold First-Ever Auction for California Offshore Wind Leases
Federal officials today will auction off leases for 583 square miles of ocean waters off California that could lead to the nation’s first massive floating wind farms. The auction — the first on the West Coast — includes five sites in deep ocean waters about 20 miles off Morro Bay and Humboldt County. The leases […]